Sight & Sound Theater's 'David'

Colleen Mallette shares her amazement of the quality live production of the biblical life of David at Sight & Sound Theatre.

Last month I had the privilege to attend the live stage production of the life of David at the Sight & Sound Theatre in Lancaster, PA. We joined 3 other couples, two of whom had attended the show about Jesus three years ago and couldn’t stop raving about it until we all agreed to go. We purchased our tickets together as soon as they went on sale, almost a year before we attended.

In the meantime, we were blessed to be able to watch the showing of Jesus on TV on Easter weekend right after the pandemic started, which was a very uplifting and generous thing for Sight & Sound Productions to offer.

Not more than a year later we purchased the live-stream showing on TV of Esther. Even though these were on a one-dimensional TV screen, we could marvel at the huge sets, dramatic costumes, and talented team who portrayed these stories. That sold me to really want to see the next available show live. After Esther, Sight & Sound announced they would be portraying David so we jumped on it and off we went, to see where “The Bible comes to life in an epic experience with a meaningful message!”

What an amazing, high-quality show (“Vegas-worthy” is how one member of our group described it!). With their four-story, 300-foot surround stage, and live animals and actors constantly coming up and down the theater aisles there was always something to watch and marvel at. The huge sets that roll seamlessly on and off the stage, the beautiful costumes, and props made it all so realistic and visual. Their use of technology on the beautiful backdrop projection scenery and even on the ceilings added to the depth of the sets. Their skilled staff consists of more than 50 actors and 700 employees working at this beautiful theater in the middle of Amish farm country.

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As for the story, their writers did a wonderful job using what is in the Bible to relate the details of David’s life from being a young musical shepherd, to being chosen as the future King of Israel, to defeating Goliath (an amazing thing to see live!), to running from King Saul for many years before becoming a great warrior and king. Then in his glory days they included how David became exhausted and eventually succumbed to manly desires, which was handled in a very family-friendly way. The most beautiful part of the whole show was how this truly godly man realized his sin, repented, and was given mercy by Jesus, who died on the cross to save us all from our sinful behavior.

Throughout the show the talented actor portraying David played his lyre and sang the actual Psalms from Scripture that were written by David during each of these parts of his life. It was a natural way to incorporate that other talented side of David and add to the entertainment of the show.

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Several messages were repeated throughout the play as well: that of David being a man after God’s own heart, how God looks at the heart not the outward appearance, that our God is merciful and protective and always with us as our Loving Shepherd.

Even though we purchased our tickets a year ago, the timing of seeing this show last month was extra impactful since three of us who went are currently learning about David while listening to Fr. Mike Schmitz’ Bible in a Year podcast as he reads the books of Samuel. What a fabulous way to reinforce the story and messages by visualizing all that David went through.

Besides this being a high-quality stage production, we were impressed to learn that this one show will be seen by roughly 880,000 people in 2022! They put on 11 shows each week from March through December and their 2,000-seat capacity theater is sold out almost every show (as of right now there are no seats available until October!). This show of David will then move to their Branson, MO, theater for 2023. They spend three years creating each play.

That is an incredible testimony to people’s desire to learn more about the Bible in a creative way, support biblical productions, and grow in their faith in God. We felt honored to be a small group of those in attendance. I would highly encourage everyone to try to attend one of these plays with your family at least once in your life!